Russian Firepower Burns Canadian Women’s Hockey Team

Russia defeated the Canadian women’s hockey team 4-1 for the gold
medal at the 2017 Winter Universiade in Almaty Kazakhstan on Feb. 6.
(Courtesy of USports)

The Canadian women’s hockey team could not find the revenge they
wanted against Russia at the 2017 Winter Universiade in Almaty,
Kazakhstan.

Just as they did in the 2015 finals, Canada will have to settle for
silver after Russia’s potent offence controlled the game lifting them to
a 4-1 win.

Canada’s special teams, which had proved to be very effective
throughout the tournament, let them down in the finals going 0-14 on the
power play.

“We just couldn’t bury the puck today. We had lots of opportunities
to get it deep and put it in the net but we just couldn’t do that today.
A lot of missed opportunities for sure,” said assistant captain Kelty
Apperson (New Hamburg, Ont./St. Thomas University). Apperson finished
the five-game tournament with three goals and seven points. “They played
a strong defensive system. They were very aggressive on the [penalty
kill].”

Russia was bolstered with seven members of the country’s 2014 Olympic
team, including current University of Calgary Dinos forward Alexandra
Vafina. But, it was the two goal performance by Olga Sosina in front of a
standing-room only crowd of over 5,000 at the Baluan Sholak Arena that
led them to their second gold medal in women’s hockey at the
Universiade.

Sosina, who helped Russia clinch a bronze medal at the 2016 IIHF
Women’s World Hockey Championship with the shootout winner over Finland,
opened the scoring against Canada in the first period while on the
powerplay. A quick wrist shot found its way under the crossbar.

Seven minutes later, at 18:22, Sosina served a perfect pass through
the crease to Liudmila Belyakova who beat Canadian netminder Valerie
Lamenta (Montreal, Que./University of Guelph) five-hole.

Apperson finally put Canada on the board in the second period with a
quick wrist shot along the ice that got past Russian goalie Maria
Sorokina.

Sosina came right back with a shot that fooled Canada’s Lamenta short
side, making it 3-1 for the Russians. Alevtina Shtareva put the game
out of reach for the Canadians in the third period pushing in her own
rebound.

“We need to congratulate Russia for an excellent game. They played
extremely well. Their goalie kept them in the game early on when I
thought we were putting some good pressure on them,” said Team Canada
head coach Rachel Flanagan from the University of Guelph. Team Canada’s
speed caused Russia problems, forcing the now two-time champions to take
14 penalties.

“Obviously power play was a big factor. We must have had around 30
minutes of power play in the game. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, we
worked hard all game, we just missed too many opportunities,” said
Mélodie Bouchard, a (Sept-Îles, Que./ University of Ottawa), who ended
the tourney with five goals and eight points. “I’m still proud to have
won a medal. But the thing I’m most proud of was to win it with those
girls.”

Alexandra Labelle (Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que./Université de
Montréal), who had been making her case for tournament MVP, was kept off
the scoresheet. In the semifinal 8-1 win over the U.S., she netted
three goals and had one assist for the second consecutive game. Through
five games, the forward led the tournament in goals (nine) and points
(13).

While it wasn’t the colour of medal they wanted, it was the Canadian
delegation’s first medal at the 2017 Universiade. The U.S. took the
women’s hockey bronze medal, beating China 3-0.

Since women’s hockey was added to the Universiade program, Canada
claimed the first three gold medals (2009 Harbin, China, 2011 Erzurum,
Turkey and 2013 Trentino, Italy).

The U Sports all-stars roster consists of full-time students at a
postsecondary institution or that have graduated from a postsecondary
institution in the year preceding the Universiade, a multisport event.

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